NEW YORK (Reuters) - Comeback stories will be the unofficial plotline of next week's Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual event where the videogame industry shows off a dizzying display of new games, consoles and assorted gadgets.

About 45,000 reporters, industry types and analysts will converge on Los Angeles for the E3 conference, sprawled across a space the size of eight U.S. football fields.

This year's conference, running June 7-9, comes as the industry tries to cope with the rapid growth of online and mobile gaming -- and as two of its stalwarts find themselves on unsteady footing.

Nintendo, once a leader in hardware sales, is struggling to win users from Microsoft Corp and Sony Corp and is coming off a disappointing launch of its 3DS handheld device. In a bid to return to the top, it will be unveiling a new video game console designed for the home.

Sony, meanwhile, will try to erase the black eye caused by a data breach that exposed the personal information of more than 100 million of its video game users.

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